My, my

It’s nearly been a week since I posted a blog. I’ve been busy, don’t know with what now that I come on here. But here are some highlights:

- Evidently I wasn’t spending my time reading Harry Potter as I only up to P340 or something (rule no. 94 If you are going to talk about ‘where you are up to’ in Harry Potter, a page number is the only reference you can give).

- Met Nicky and Heidi on their way back to the motherland on Thursday. I laughed til it hurt hearing tales of their holiday.

- This was the second time last week I laughed til it hurt. The first was quoting lines from ‘Airplane’. ‘What kind of plane is it? Oh, it's a big pretty white plane with red stripes, curtains in the windows and wheels and it looks like a big Tylenol.’

- Actually, it was the third time. The first time was when I was teaching my GCSE class. I had tried to write ‘disastrous’ on the board (in reference to Russia’s 1904 war with Japan). I said ‘I don’t think I spelt that right’, to which they replied ‘yeah we think you spelt ‘illiterate’ wrong as well.’

- No, excuse me, it was the fourth. The actual second time was with my Year 1s. We’re looking at the History of Singapore and I was doing a recap of what we’d done and this boy kept on chipping in getting clarification on things. And he said ‘so the Dutch had control of the Malay archipelago and Raffles took over that Malay island…what’s it called again?’ To which another boy, with all the 'd’uh' in his voice he could muster said ‘Singapore’... I blame his Geography teacher.

- So for those of you keeping track, it was ‘illiterate’, ‘Singapore’, ‘Airplane’ and stories from Nicky and Heidi in chronological order of laughing til it hurts. Laughing til it hurts is great.

- I saved the world on Friday. Well I tried. I finally put those bags for your toilet cistern in (They were another 'birthday present' along with the fabric softener). I got one in on my own (without the assistance of the engineer they offered) but in one toilet the ballcock is wedged in and the bag won't fit. Sadly, for the world, this is on the toilet that I actually use.

-My Year 3s and I came up with a plan which could also help save the world. Now, it might be more of a Sheryl Crow than an Al Gore, but hear us out. What if A5 paper was the norm, not A4? We'd save loads of paper. Around half we'd say. There might need to be some adjustment in the size of handwriting but I think when you consider what is at stake who wouldn't want to write slightly smaller. It's the world we're talking about people!

- It was the school musical (Joseph) on Friday and Saturday night. I was like a proud parent looking at my students who were in it. I mean, it was no ‘My Fair Lady’ xBHSers, but still quite good.

- I went to the National Museum of Singapore on Saturday to see what they had for the proposed school trip. There’s loads of displays and relevant things but I was devastated to learn that there are no, as in zero, zip, nada, worksheets. What sort of national museum has an education department and no worksheets?!

- I found a cat meowing outside my apartment today. Cats seems to gravitate towards people in my family! I’m not too sure if it was stray or not, but the St. Francis of Assisi that I am, I gave it some tuna and helped him on his merry way. I toyed with the idea of keeping him just so as to see my landlady’s face. She has a kitten herself every time the yappy dog starts up because she thinks it’s mine. ‘Yes that’s right, even though it’s against our tenancy agreement , I have a dog and I kick it out every time you come around to next door so as you won’t suspect anything. Oh and I’m also clever enough to clear up any tell tale signs of a dog before you come in, like bowls, leads and hairs. Ha ha, fooled you.’

Right enough, if I owe you an email, and let’s face it, I probably do, you’ll excuse me if I go to bed now and read some more of Mr. Potter. Night night.

I'm stared

People are so funny. Like a boy in my class, who everytime he comes in (about 3 times a day it seems) he says 'Ah Miss, you know in Harry Potter when...nah just joking'. Good job too, otherwise he might see colours of rage from me he has yet to experience.

So with that in mind I'm not going to read the comments because people seem determined to spoil Harry Potter yet I am determined not to find out what happens.

Excuse me, reading to be done.

Old man name

I went to see Harry Potter the other night. I'm not that big into it at all but I like to keep up with the kids. For instance, I have never re-read one, and I really don't think I have seen any other film except for the few one, or maybe two.

That said, I really enjoyed the film, although today I was talking about and someone said something about a certain bit in it and I couldn't remember it at all. This concerns me, as I might be turning into Ruth who remembers nothing about anything!

Anyway, if you haven't seen it I won't say anything, except how much knitwear was there in it?! I was expecting to see 'costumes provided by the Edinburgh Woollen Mill' at the end. Oh and how brilliant Imelda Staunton was in it? Super.

Yesterday I got the book and am about to start into it. I had to put up a sign on my door today though saying:

Rule 86*

There shall be no talking about Harry Potter inside my classroom.

*In tribute to Umbridge. Of course it raised questions about what rule number x was. Quick witted as ever I replied with 'there shall be no untucked shirts in my classroom' for I am the Mrs. McNutt of my school!

As I walking out this evening one of my students asked 'how long does rule 86 last for?'
'Til I finish it.'

Good luck everybody.

No. 27, Singapore

And a Happy Tina Day one and all!

As I was thinking about my birthdays I realised that this should actually be the 27th Annual International Tina Day (technically there's an argument that it's the 28th but that makes me seem older than I am!) because recently I have had more out of the country than in:

27 - Singapore
26 - Seoul, Korea
25 - Teresopolis, Brazil
24 - Befast, N. Ireland
23 - Whitehead, N. Ireland
22 - Jordanstown, N. Ireland
21 - Boyne Falls, Michigan
20 - Tulsa, Oklahoma


And two of those in the country were at international conferences so thus I have now decided Tina Day is International! (Also this is the first in a while without Dee! Sad!) Pre-twenties I think the furtherst abroad I was for my birthday was maybe Holland, although I can't remember if my actual birthday was there or my mum just bought my card there. It had a spinny wheel to select how old you were and the greeting. Very functional. I actually don't remember many of my pre-twenties birthdays at all, my birthday was usually a non-event as friends were away and all that. Although I do remember a few parties and presents. Like my Care Bear mug I got when I was about five. To this day, milk tastes better from it. And I remember the day after my sixth birthday Sarah Ferguson married Prince Andrew! Maybe that's why I love national events?


Anyway, so far the day has been way better than last year. Like Christmas, this is a day where it's allowed, nay, expected to get up early. So I was up at 8.30am. I opened my cards and even a present and checked my emails. Then the doorbell went. Thinking it was upstairs about the leaky bathroom, I thought bad thoughts about them. But when I looked through the peep hole I saw a man with balloons and flowers!


When I opened the door, it got even better, he had cake!


Then I watched an episode of The West Wing whilst eating my Birthday Breakfast of a frozen drink and Mini Roll (again like Christmas, it's ok to have chocolate for breakfast on your birthday). Then I went out for church. After church we went out for lunch where I had the biggest Sundae I have ever seen. Once they heard it was the 27th Annual International Tina Day they even gave it to me for free!



Blowing out the candle!

So now I am just back from the pool (played with the noodle) and now need to get ready for a barbeque at Clare's.

Marvellous.

How did you know?!

Thank you so much, whoever it was! It really is quite generous. I don't know what to say.


I promise I won't open it until the big day but the clear wrapping paper kind of gave it away.

They're supposed to be the third easiest

Coconut Kisses
Fifteens
Top Hats


That's the order of easiness for 'baking'. Only not in Singapore. I thought I would have a party for my class. Cake was out because I don't have a mixer so I thought of Top Hats. Couldn't get much more simple right? Wrong. Here's why.


1. The cases seem slightly too small.

2. You can only get American marshmallows in supermarkets which are not the same at all. They're cylindrical for a start. And they have too much air in them. So I had to go down to Orchard Road to get some M&S ones.

3. Chocolate here has way too much fat in it. I think it's to stop it melting in shops but this does not make it easy to get it in tiny bun cases. It kind of gloops in.

4. The condensation from the Smarties being in the fridge made the colours run.


But I bet no other teacher bakes their class Top Hats to celebrate their birthday! So leave it.


PS Birthday card count is still depressing. Nothing, nothing in the mail box today. Not even a junk mail flyer wishing me a good day! Che!

Let’s see

Where are we up to? It’s been a while since I last blogged so I’ll try to fill you in.

Last week, everything was about the school fair. Each class had to come up with a game, which is fine in theory but when you have a first year form class then they can’t really navigate their way through the organisation required. Thus I spent most of the week chivvying them to bring in the materials, get things made and generally pull the whole thing off.

Our game, picked by the class (with only a small amount of manipulation from me), was ‘Teacher Torture’ or ‘throw darts at pictures of teachers’ (their first attempt at the name). Most of the teachers we asked were up for it and some were definitely more popular than others.

Saturday was the fair itself, and the parents running it pulled out all the stops in creating the über fair. There were over fifty, as in five zero food stalls with all different sorts of food, an all day concert with ‘celebrities’ (I knew none of them!) and then all the games the classes had.

Sounds good, except that I was at school at 7.45am and didn’t leave until 6.15pm. And what was worse is that everything was outside. So not only was it the über fair, it was the über sauna fair. I reckon I lost half my body weight in sweat throughout the day.

That said, my class did well. Much better than coconut bowling on one side of us and golf putting on the other. Looking at the total amount taken from each game, we had the most business! This requires only marginal bending of the data (lies, damn lies and statistics?). All the games that raised more were higher priced games (like Laser Quest - $15). Our game cost £3 so we had over 400 people come play. Hence we win.

On Sunday I did nothing to do with school. I did my shopping, bought a noodle for the pool, and slept. Not necessarily in that order.

This week has been busy enough, even with my planning done last week. When I plan ahead, like I did last week, I forget what all my notes mean and what I’m supposed to do. Another reason for last minute planning I feel. I redecorated my room today. I like this one a lot. I forgot to take photos but no doubt will do so soon. Might take me a while to get them on here and by that time it’ll be changed again.

What else? Oh birthday card response is disappointing. Today all I got was a bill. Boo hiss. Still, I’m ready for an influx. Texts are likely to go unanswered at present too as my phone is suffering from a motherboard failure preventing the number buttons from working, crucial to text message writing you’ve got to say.

So that’s about it for now.

Music Monday

Inexplicably there wasn't a June 07 playlist. But we're back on form with July 07's. Here are the the best.

Lovestoned/I Think She Knows Interlude - JT
Don't really care for the Lovestoned part (although I do particularly like the 'Hot damn!' bit!) more the Interlude which on the full version lasts ages. I got this on free download from Bebo. If you're not friends with Free Single Saturday then should add them. If you're quick you'll get a code for iTunes to download a song of your choice. I chose this, because let's face it, I'm not about to pay for it.

Before the Throne of God Above
We sang this in church the other day as a 'new song'. I had kind of forgotten about it until then. It reminds me of TOM because Jud would always ask to sing it. It one of my memories of training.

Pipe Dreams - Travis
I have been teaching about the Holocaust to my GCSE class recently and played them this video from You Tube. This is one of the reasons why I could never be a Maths teacher (well that I didn't care what x was, oh yeah and I was crap), call me biased, serious life things are much more important.

Watch the video. I think it must have been made as a project or something by a student. Aside from the spelling at the beginning (which I cannot work out what it's supposed to be!) it's quite well done.

14 days

I see that there is a postal strike coming up and I remembered how mail was affected during that one last year. Now, I'm all for better pay and conditions but this worries me greatly. Don't they know that the 27th Annual Tina Day is coming up?!

So why don't you get a march on the strikers and send your greeting now* so it is safely on its way before postal workers can halt its progress? Ah go on, it'll be a much better day with a card full of kind thoughts from you!

*address available upon request.

Whole new meaning to it

Was out for dinner tonight (Thai Express, mmn) and beside us was someone taking their bird out.


No, actually.

Things I never thought I would see, no. 52

Yesterday

During my stint in the Department Nicky and Heidi were booking their holiday to Australia. They had a long wait in Singapore to change planes so I was told I would have to meet them at the airport with some sandwiches.

We did so much better than that.


I even had a sign for them. They missed this entirely though as they walked out another door about 100m away from me.


It still made them laugh though.

After the initial round of hugs, Nicky said words that I believe he would later regret ‘I thought it was supposed to sweltering in this country?’ Ah, the benefits of air con. I feel like I go on about it all the time, so it was good to have confirmation that it is actually really hot and humid here.


We saw Raffles Hotel, the Parliament and walked along the river marvelling at people running a fun run. Then we stopped for breakfast/lunch/dinner (depending on your jet lag).


Of all the fine eateries in Singapore we went here. No we actually did.


Then we got a bum boat (that’s what they’re called!)


Nicky was king of the world (albeit a more lethargic one).


All too soon their time in Singapore was over and they were heading back through to the gates. Note the matching his and hers backpacks. Bless.


It good to have them here, and fun to show part of my world to my friends. I'm already looking forward to my next visitors. And they're here for the best part of two weeks!

A fine day

I had a good day today. More on that tomorrow maybe.

But I just finished it off with an episode of The West Wing (Season 2, 'In the Shadow of Two Gunmen') and some Ben and Jerry's ice cream.

There is perhaps no finer TV programme and no finer ice cream.

Like I said, a good day!